Politics

On 2015 March 14, Edmonton joined with many others communities across Canada to voice their opposition to the Federal Government’s proposed Bill C-51. By my estimates a few hundred people gathered at Canada Place to hear speeches, hoist placards and chant. Here is what it looked like:

Protesters and Placards

Not Terrorists

It was very pleasing to see the speakers representing diverse segments of our society, politically and culturally. Unfortunately the sound system did not make it easy to hear what was being said.

I was a disappointed that some of the speakers chose to take the opportunity to push their own agenda such as:

taking shots at the Liberal Party

making comments that some would consider borderline anti-Semitic

Campaigning for the next election and debating foreign policy would have best been left for another day.

After the speeches, the protestors took off on a short march through the streets of downtown Edmonton.

Marching Off

There was no doubt that much of the blame for Bill C-51 was focused directly at the Prime Minister.

No2C51

Most of the protesters seemed passionate and honest in their belief in free speech, open protest and standing up for what you believe – there were however a handful of people who attended the protest anonymously – masked. I do not believe that they helped the cause.

Anonymous

By the time of the march, the crowd had maybe reached 500 – not bad but given the seriousness of the issue I had really expected tens of thousands of people to be out in Edmonton. I was further dismayed that the Crashed Ice event (downhill racing on skates on an icy track built beside the convention centre), would attract something like TWO HUNDRED TIMES more people, a few hours later!

Stop

And to end on a lighter note…

Near the end of the speeches, an unannounced special guest, a true Canadian icon, dropped in on the event to express an opinion. Although he spoke loudly and with passion, that hinted at his stand, I’m afraid no one understood a thing that he said.

I was saddened this past week to hear a story about how the runways at the old municipal airport were being ripped up. This is not really news but it is a milestone. The decisions leading this latest action were made long ago and the destruction has been ongoing for years. First it was prohibition of scheduled flights, then running car races on the airport (what an indignity to that hallowed and historic site). I still think that the closure of YXD, our City Centre Airport will go down as the biggest mistake in the history of this City.

I have been hoping that some forward minded politicians and civic leaders would come to their senses and reverse the decision before it is too late. Once development starts there will be no going back because the cost of clearing a track of land big enough for an airport within the City will be billions of dollars, perhaps even push to a trillion. Of course the cost and the political implications mean this will never happen. Once that airport land is gone, there will never be an Edmonton airport again.

I know some people will say the decision was made, it was decided by the citizens in a referendum, so just let it go. Somehow though the full history of that decision has been conveniently forgotten. The airport closure came on the second referendum – the first referendum, in 1992, saw Edmontonians vote to keep to the Municipal Airport open! Then in what I still consider a mysterious process, a second referendum was called for in 1995 and there seemed to be a lot of money flowing into the “Close-it” campaign. I don’t recall hearing where that backing came from but it smelled fishy and I’ve always suspected the money came from someone with an interest in seeing the airport closed (and making a healthy return by redeveloping the land) or someone who had a financial interest in the International Airport and saw money to be made if/when the International airport took off as a result of the closing of the municipal airport.

I always wished that a crack investigative journalist would have taken on the task of putting together the pieces of that 1995 referendum campaign but I fear that twenty years later it may be difficult and too late.

Of course the super highrise developments that are already underway and planned for downtown have also sealed the fate of the traditional airport flight paths but I still hold out hope that some air services, even if just a heliport and small plane facilities, would be retained. Hope though I may, I won’t hold my breath waiting for this to occur.

I just came across a blog post that I had started to write exactly 2 years ago, but I never completed it, nor posted it. In November of 2012 City Council had just killed the idea of a new Edmonton Arena, ending negotiations (remember that?) with Edmonton Oiler owner Daryl Katz. Here is what I was thinking about the situation at the time:

I was happy to hear that Edmonton City Council finally quit plans on a new downtown arena but I fear we may not have heard the last of it. Don’t get me wrong, I very much relish a strong and vibrant downtown core but the Katz proposal and more particularly the process – stank!

I have questions. the first and foremost is simply “Why replace”? What is wrong with the existing facility? This throwaway mentality seems to be general problem. This thinking of a building’s lifetime in terms of decades, when it should be in terms of centuries is a terrible waste!

I could understand a new facility new facility if it were significantly bigger (in terms of seating capacity). 50 to 100% larger would put the facility in a different class from the Northlands building, but this proposal calls for just a marginal increase in capacity. It is still very much in the same class and therefore unnecessary. We don’t need two facilities in this same size class – until we have two NHL franchises or are regularly turning away touring world class arena concerts. We certainly are not there yet – maybe in 100 years?

Development around arena has been sold as a benefit of a downtown arena. If this is a natural consequence of a big arena, why did it not happen around Northlands? Are there not already enough major buildings, activities, magnets in the downtown area?

I’ve also felt that there was something fishy about the whole arena process and that the City got sucked in. Am I mistaken in recalling that when Katz first bought the Oilers, he said he was going to build a new arena with his own money plus he would put $100 million into nearby development? It sounded as if all the City had to do was support the necessary zoning for the project. By the end it was to the point where the City builds the arena out of tax dollars, Katz gets the revenues from it and pays a small portion of those revenues back to the City over many years (i.e. nothing out of his pocket!) This is such a radical change. This is a “bait and switch” of enormous proportion – if this happened to me on a personal transaction I would have walked away much earlier This kind of bargaining tactic does not even deserve negotiation.

So that is what I was thinking in November 2012, what do I think now, two years later in November 2014, with the arena construction well under way?

I still do not like the process by which the City got pulled in and committed to this project, but I’ve got to say that I am very impressed by the progress in the arena construction and the plans for development around the Arena District. The City needs more distinct districts in the downtown core and it looks like this one, for business and entertainment, is indeed happening and will be good for the City of Edmonton as a whole.